Horrific scenes from the station in the Yunnan city of Kunming, in China's south west, have been posted on social media, many swiftly removed by censors, of bodies with slash wounds, pools of blood, and abandoned luggage from terrified travellers.

China blamed separatists from the country's far north west, with state news agency Xinhua reporting that four attackers had been shot by police, with one female suspect in custody. No further details were given on the motivation, which has yet to be independently verified.

A police walks through a door at the scene in the Kunming railway station after an attack